The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1887-09-07
A STORY OF THE RACE TRACK.
cow Richball Won from Buffalo Girl
Lucy and Flora Bell.
From the Chicago Inter OCEAN.


Lucy and Flora Bell.
From the Chicago Inter Ocean.
Johnny Campbell, the well-known horse
.,or has changed but little during the in
Evening years that have driftcd away
sinca he first became famous i'll Chicago
snorting annals by his mastery handling
II the bald-faced PAGER .Richball in free
fo,-all side-wheel struggle that left many an
ching void i'll the gangs pocket books, and
ebat With some is still nothing but a bitter
..ar,orv. 1t was in July, 1883, and that
u;,h+ before the race the writer, then a new
n9n7er on the Chicago press, dropped into
tba Palmer House to ascertain how the pools
were selling on the next days races at
tha Driving Park. The vast rotunda
. u,as crowded with trotting horsemen
from all over the country, and the silvery-
tononed pool sellers were doing land office
SIsiness The free for all pacing race the
Daxt day. in which Buffalo Girl Lucy,
uTora Belle, Richball and several others
,rora TO measure strides, was the medium
for vast amount of speculation, for Buffa-
n Girl was strong favorite, with Flora
RaIe as the second choice, whilei in pools of
es00 and 5000 the despised Richball could
he purchased for SO note. 1t was that
ace that gave Johnny Campbell his start
in the world, and the bald-faced PAGER yet
occupies warm spot in the genial little
horseman's heart.
aft doesn't seem such a long time ago,
looking back at it now, d" he said, ''since I
downed the gang over this track with Rich
hall. but guess there are some men in this
nIace who still have vivid recollection of
The occurrence. The boys did not think
Pichball was worth taking into considera-
tior. and so made a combination, leaving
him out, and had things all fixed in good
shape for Buffalo Girl to win. Fayette
smith, his owner, myself and two or three
others. however, knew what Richball could
do, and so we quietly purchased all the tickets
that were sold on the horse. Fayette Smith
was to drive him an easy heat in the
first and then | was to get up behind him
and cut loose at the gang, Well, Fayette
drove him the first heat, as was planned,
Init. as YOU will remember, Lucy ran into
him on the upper turn, there tangling him
all up, and they We're both shut out. Owing
to the accident, however, the judges agreed
TO let Richball start again, and no one OBJ
iected, as he wasn't thought of as being
dangerous just before the second heat l
was sitting ON the club house steps, when |
overheard some one say to Jim Mccarthy:
"'Campbell's going to get up behind
Rchball'
Jim laughed and replied: ooh, that's
can stop Campbell with $50 note kept
as quiet as a mouse, and they walked away
without seeing me. Well, drove him an
EASY heat the second heat in order to get him
steadied again and the third heat | cut
loose and won with him. They seemed to
think my winning that was kind of a fluke,
but when [ came back and won the fourth
they were as badly a scared lot of men as
YOU ever saw on race track. Jim Nc
inht To nd
calling me one side he said: Say, Campbell,
YOU don't think you can win this race, do
you"
:" oh, yes do said.
well. now, saw he went on, we've got
considerable money on this race and stand
to win quite sum on Buffalo Girl, and the
boys told me to see you and offer you $500
not to drive it out.
Nov you know that amt enough, Jim,'
Ireplied, laughing all the time to myself.
"'Well, well, we'll make it $500 then
"'Not enough yet, jim
ITO make long story short he kept rails
ing the price until he got up to couple of
thousand, when | took a big stack of pool
tickets on old Badly from my pocket and
showed them to him.
"'Do you stand to win all that? he asked,
after looking them over.
That's what do
see the boys.
HE was gone for only short time, and
when he came back he kept increasing his
price until finally be offered me 5000 for
the race, and then | refused. He had lost
his temper a little by this time, and
"'Confound you, just name your price,
he said.
look a here, JIM I answered, you said
before the race and when you heard that
n Irix hot ctn
Johnny Campbell with $50 bill, and now
you find that $1,000 won't do it. You go
back to your party now, and tell 'em that
you've found one man that amt got any
price, and that that mans Johnny Camp
bell kin win this race and I'm going to
do it The boys tried to hedge out then,
but it was too late, and went on and won
with Richball just as said | would.
What made us think that we could win
the race with Richball?
We'll, I'll tell you. At Louisville one
starlit night before we went to Washington,
when honest men were all in bed and rogues
were travelling, or in other words between
l and o'clock in the morning, drove him
three heats, every one Of which was better
than 2:12, and that was fast enough to beat
anybody in those days | haven't seen
old Badly in a long time now. The last
time was at Dallas, Tex. and when l went
iI0O iiis atdIl anu SPOKE 10 nm nc hlic" ilio
In a minute and whinnied after me
as I walked away never struck
him with whip in my life, and yet | could
get more speed out of him than anybody
else. used him kindly and he seemed to
have confidence in me- One OF the days,
when the right time comes, I'm going to
buy him back. He helped me out of the
hole, and it will be only fair for me to see
that he ends his days in clover. A great
horse was Richball, and when right and on
the edge he could beat any side-wheeler that